HINTS AND TIPS - THE FOLLOW ON
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Firewood
By Patrick Ward (USA)
Need an inexpensive stack of firewood? Simply go outside find a small dead branch on a tree, cut into small pieces, and use wood (Elmer's or PVA) glue to create a stack to the size you need. This method could also be used for a pulpwood load. In less than five minutes you have a load for a bulkhead car and money not spent!
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Firewood
By Patrick Ward (USA)
Need an inexpensive stack of firewood? Simply go outside find a small dead branch on a tree, cut into small pieces, and use wood (Elmer's or PVA) glue to create a stack to the size you need. This method could also be used for a pulpwood load. In less than five minutes you have a load for a bulkhead car and money not spent!
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Cheap Washers and Spacers
By Ian Baldrick (UK)
Ever needed a small plastic washer or small plastic spacer when modelling , something for the gear train to stop sideplay, or adjust the bogie height or coupling height etc, try the poundshops for a bag of assorted sequins.
Ranging in thickness from 0.7mm to 3mm ,diameters from 2mm to 10mm or thereabouts, all with a 0.95mm hole in the centre, mainly round , but a few square and other obscure shapes, like stars, mini-gears, and what must be a 100,000 in a plastic bag. Not all are 'flat', some are cone shaped etc.
They can be assorted colours including clear in assorted packets ( or just one colour per pack ), and according to the kitchen scales there is 100gms in a packet and internal holes are easily drilled to suit if needed.
Last edit: by xdford
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Masking – A Different Technique
By Lester Larew (USA)
When you need to paint two colors on the same model, first paint the 1st color, wait to dry at least 24 hours, then use any masking tape to make your line. Now, spray the area that is to be painted the new color AT THE EDGE OF THE TAPE with dullcoat, sealing the tape. let dry for 30 min. or so and then paint the second color. What a great paint line this leaves. No bleeding, just a great line.
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Hardshell Base
By Todd Vinycomb
To form your hardshell base, many have used cardboard, screen with plaster soaked paper towels. Cardboard has its merits, easy to work and form, but lacks positive strength and this can cause cracking in your shell. Screen helps to give the lateral strength to eliminate stress cracking but is rather expensive.
The alternative, believe it or not is free! Onion sacks, orange bags are a nylon mesh type screen and used in conjunction with cardboard or scrap lumber give you a wonderful base to drape your paper toweling/plaster on. This gives you the lateral strength needed (similar to 2.5 wire mesh used in real plaster work) to eliminate stress cracking and gives you a solid hardshell that will last a lifetime or until you build your next layout.
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Paved Streets
By Patrick Ward (USA)
A simple way to age your paved streets: use a fine point pen to create cracks. Simply drive around your neighborhood or areas similar to where your modeling and see how they're aging. Word of caution though, don't go crack crazy
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Model Your Friends
By John Hanks (USA)
Instead of placing generic figures on your layout, it can be a lot of fun to model your friends, through placing them in characteristic settings. One friend is looking down into a convertible while his wife photographs his backside. Another two friends have dropped a beer keg outside of a bar. Another waves to her boy friend who is working on a power pole. You get the idea.
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Access Hatches without Hinges or Screws etc
By John Hanks (USA)
One way to hold an access hatch in place when it rests against the layout from below is to simply hold it up with bungi (sp) cords. I have a removable harbor surface that has been held up against the bottom of my layout in this way for some time. I remove it about once a week. No screws/no latches.
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Cheap, Fast and Effective Scenery
By Will Wright (USA)
Recently, however, I wanted to build some scenery, but had only some scraps of styrofoam at hand that were not suitable for stacking or carving. With a bit of experimentation, I discovered a way to make good use of these scraps – indeed any type of plastic foam or even old "packing peanuts" – in scenery construction.
Mound them up in approximately the desired form, then bind them together using self-adhering mesh-type plastic sheet rock tape. Then slather runny plaster-of-paris over the tape and you will get very strong and cheap scenery. Some landforms demand greater precision that this technique affords, but it works great for generic hills and valleys.
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Firewood
By James Skewes (USA)
It was humid and windy where I live, so I thought before I did a clear coat on my loco, I would test to see how Model Master spray lacquer would dry with outside wind vs. inside none. The humidity was very high in either area, and the coating is semi-gloss. With the outside wind, the semi-gloss dried with a super-flat finish. Inside the garage where it was a little warmer but there was no wind, I got the proper finish.
So remember, if you are spraying a clear coat and it is humid, do it where there is no wind whatsoever. It makes a surprisingly big difference!
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Making Mud Puddles and Ditch Water
By Michael Carey (California)
There are quite a few ways of representing Muddy Puddles and Ditch water on your layout and virtually no railway yard is without them… somewhere. On a mock up of your scene, practice using cheap store clear nail polish. You can play with it a little until you get the look you want to try on the layout.
If you do not mind spending a bit extra A little more expensive but a little better to work with is Gloss Medium from the art and craft store
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Widening Rail Joiners
By Doug Dickson (SW France)
I have noticed the uncanny ability of the end of a joiner to find the tender area between flesh and thumb/finger nail, and having come very close to losing my blood-tightness with the Stanley blade. This is true of any rail joiner which has a tight tolerance. I have made up a gizmo consisting of an old small file handle and piece of rail. A tiny piece of joiner is soldered on at a distance from the end which equates to 1/2 the length of the joiners. The piece of rail is fixed into the handle with two-part epoxy resin glue.
The end of the rail is filed to a slight taper. In use, the joiner is pushed onto the end, then pushed against a solid object until it opens sufficiently. Pulled off with some fine pliers the process is repeated at the other end.
It also enables me to place a joiner on an installed track-end without my fingers obscuring the view.
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Adjusting Light intensities in buildings using LEDs Pt 1
By Nick Allport
I have just been adding lights to the office of the goods shed I am building. Someone had suggested having the led in a cardboard tube inserted from the base of the building. I actually ended up buying a packet of thin black drinking straws (I am using 3mm leds), making a hole in the base of the building, the led is inside the straw, and the straw/led is then poked up into the room it is lighting.
I have since discovered a couple of advantages to this lighting method. One - by either pulling the led further into the straw, or by pushing the straw closer to the ceiling, the light can be adjusted and two – it is really easy to change the led without taking the building apart, or even removing it from the layout should you need to!
This only works with LED's though. I tried it with grain of wheat bulbs and the straw melted immediately!
Last edit: by xdford
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Adjusting Light intensities in buildings using LEDs Pt 2
By Several Modeller's
1. Add ceilings made from kitchen tin foil, to reflect any light downwards
2. Use tissue paper as a net curtain, or paint liquid glue over the lower part of the 'glass' to represent frosting.
3. The 'round end' of the LED is a lens- if you want to distribute the light more evenly, slightly rub the lens on a piece of wet and dry until it is flat.
4. Sand the sides of the LED to make the light much less 'punchy'.
5. I have also very slightly flattened the round end and then drill carefully with a small drill to leave a sort of inverted 'VEE' , that reflects the light back upwards and then most of it will disperse from the sides of the LED.
Last edit: by xdford
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Ungluing Glued up points when Ballasting
By Rick Squirrel (Melbourne, Australia)
I have ungummed sticky points from gluing ballast (with 50:50 Glue water) by dropping hot (not boiling) water onto the blades / tabs with the same dropper used for ballasting. It is ironic but if the dropper is well flushed first it won't contain any residual adhesive when you do this.
Always ease the point free rather than trying to force it. If it's only 50:50 PVA it will come good sooner or later
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Using Finishing Coats from Spray cans
By Ben Noakes (Australia)
Spray cans can never replicate the finish of an airbrush particularly for finishing coats such as Dullcote or Gloss Varnish. However you can improve them by sitting in warm water prior to painting. It thins the paint in the tin and makes easier to mix and also applies warm for a faster drying time. Many clear finishes also appear either yellow or white when applied too thick or in too many coats by airbrush, which is usually just one with spray can.
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Holding Rollingstock bodies while Painting
By Peter Cokley (Gold Coast, Australia)
When spray painting the likes of locomotive and carriage bodies, use a stick recycled from a cardboard roll from something like cling wrap up the base and use that to hold it as it is less awkward then using your fingers which results in an easier spraying motion.
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Making Grass and Stubble Pt 1
By Mike Cawdrey (Mackay, Australia)
Here is how I am representing a soily/rubbly area interspersed with patches of grass.
Because of the way my layout is constructed - white polystyrene foam on top of doors - this technique might need some adaptations to work on a hard surface.
To start things off, the river bank I am working on has pieces of surgical lint glued down on the white foam with PVA, then painted with any old earthy colours once it is dry. This gives a tough surface with a bit of give.
My grasses are made with Edco brand cleaning cloths - cheap, fine fibre cloths from the supermarket. I paint them with acrylics and pastels and use them for grass tufts and patches. After hacking little bits out of them I end up with some bizarrely shaped remnants that are absolutely ideal for representing the random nature of grassy patches. I snip off a nice piece and try it on the layout. When I find a likely home for it, I daub some PVA onto it and press it down.
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Making Grass and Stubble Pt 2
By Mike Cawdrey (Mackay, Australia)
Then I use a small screwdriver and a skewer to ram it home, piercing the tough lint and forcing the grass edges down into the surface. For soil I like to use air-drying clay. This is cheap stuff from the craft shop. I leave some chunks out for a few days, then pound it to powder, leaving a few bigger pieces for variety.
I carefully daub some glue onto the surrounding areas and into the holes in the grass, then sprinkle on the clay. If some goes onto the grass, that's fine. The only thing I don't want on the grass itself is glue. The clay is gently patted down, then I add a variety of powdered pastels - raw umber, raw sienna, burnt sienna and grey, this time. Scrape them directly onto the grasses and soil. Again this is all gently patted and rubbed with the fingers, taking care to avoid getting glue onto the grass. The bigger pieces of clay add variety. They can be glued down if they missed the initial gluing, and they can be painted if required.
I might add more rocks at some stage. They would need to be painted to make them belong there. Obviously you could paint your cloths any colour you want.
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Making and Using Staging Yards Pt 1
By Stein Rypern
(A Note from Trevor – This has had to be one of the best descriptions of using staging and operating that I have come across, literally any where, any time. Although it is written for the North American market, there are quite a few parallels that can be drawn here… enjoy)
Staging usually is a place (or several places) where you hold whole trains while they wait to make their appearance on the modeled part of the layout, or after they have left the modeled part of the layout. It is not a given that you will have enough staging space available to hold all your cars and all your engines at any time. Hopefully, you will have enough space available for the trains you plan to have arrive during an operating session (an operating session can represent anything from a couple of hours of traffic to a full day of traffic or more).
If you do not have enough space for all the trains you want to run during a session, you can "fiddle" trains in staging during the operating session
that is you can manually take cars off the train or put cars on the train, or swap the position of the engine and the caboose/brake van so the train that ran out of your layout eastbound a little while ago later can return as another train, now westbound.
Or you can start your session with some trains "on the way" across your layout, or "having just arrived" or some such thing.
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